Great Rabbi Leaves Town

Over 27 years ago I celebrated my bar-mitzvah in the West Side Institutional Synagogue on the West Side of Manhattan. The reason my family chose that shul was not because we davened there. It was precisely because we - and almost nobody else  - davened there that we chose it. It was a huge, beautiful shul with lots of seats and nobody to fill them. This way we could invite as many people as we wanted and there was sufficient room.

I don't think I have davened there on Shabbos morning since my bar mitzvah. Today I went there because it was the very last Shabbos of my friend Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn. Remarkably, the shul was full to capacity in both the men and women's sections. This is a testimony to the amazing job he has done there since he came. He resuscitated, revitalized and rejuvenated the shul and created a vibrant place of Torah and tefilla. His vast knowledge, charisma and many other talents combined with his tireless efforts to enable the shul to grow by leaps and bounds.

On the occasion of his move to Los Angeles together with his wife Shira [whom I know since just about her birth because she was my little sister's playmate] and family, I together will all mevakshei lev give him our bracha that he should continue spreading the light with good health, joy and limitless bounty in the material and spiritual realms.